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AURORA SURPRISE:
With little warning, a high-speed solar wind stream hit Earth yesterday,
sparking a surprise display of Northern Lights around the Arctic
Circle: gallery.
The solar wind is ebbing now, reducing the chance for a repeat performance
tonight.
BEAUTIFUL CONJUNCTION:
Last night, Feb. 27th, the crescent Moon glided by Venus for a conjunction
of rare beauty. Victor Bobbett watched the show from Paradise Valley,
Arizona. "The Moon and Venus gathered near The Praying Monk
on Camelback Mountain--it was an incredible sight!" He snapped
this picture using a handheld digital camera:
The conjunction was so pretty, it stopped traffic. " I was
traveling through Iowa City, Iowa, when this beautiful arrangement
unfolded in the evening sky," says Tom Wagner. "Quickly
I found a place to park and photographed the spectacular pair alongside
the Old Courthouse Building in Iowa City: photo."
The conjunction is breaking up now, but even with a widening gulf
of sky between them, Venus and the crescent Moon are a pretty pair.
Look west at sunset!
more images: from
Kevin Jung of Grand Rapids, Michigan; from
Pablo Lonnie Pacheco
Railey of Monterrey, Mexico; from
Ben Cooper of Ponce Inlet, Florida; from
Melba Poole of Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; from
Guy Blattmann of Saint-Etienne-de-Crossey near Grenoble, France;
from
Andreas D. Skjervold of Bodø, Norway; from
Chris Peterson of Guffey, Colorado; from
James W. Young on the RMS Queen Mary docked in Long Beach Harbor;
from
Bob Johnson of Saskatoon Saskatchewan; from
Ron Hodges of Midland Texas; from
Danny Ratcliffe of Scarborough, Queensland, Australia; from
Paul Kinzer of Goodview, Minnesota; from
Carl Turek of Grand Rapids, Michigan; from
P.Nikolakakos of Sparta, Greece;
BLUE STAR, GREEN COMET:
This morning, Feb. 28th, Comet Lulin executed
a beautiful flyby of the first-magnitude star Regulus in Leo. The
color difference between the blue star and the green comet was striking
in this photo taken by Alessandro
Dimai of Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy:
"The comet gliding by Regulus was a wonderful sight,"
he says.
The color of Regulus is a sign of heat: Regulus is a young, massive
star that burns fiercely blue-hot. The color of Comet Lulin is a
sign of cold: The comet's atmosphere contains cyanogen (CN, a poisonous
gas) and diatomic carbon (C2)--two substances that glow
green when exposed to sunlight in the cold vacuum of space. Browse
the gallery for the latest color photos:
UPDATED: Comet
Lulin Photo Gallery
[Comet
Hunter Telescope] [Sky maps: March
1, 2]
UPDATED: February
2009 Aurora Gallery
[Previous Februaries: 2008,
2007,
2006,
2004,
2003,
2002]
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the Sunspot Cycle
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